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October 31, 2007 Last year it was Banff, this year -- Puerto Vallarta. High-ranking civil servants and military officials narrowly dodged a hurricane, according to weather reports, when they landed in the Mexican resort town on October 12 for two days of brainstorming about "building a North American community." To see the 2007 North American Forum agenda, which was acquired by the Canadian Labour Congress, click here. The North American Forum, a high-profile sister organization to the Security and Prosperity Partnership, is co-chaired by George Schultz, Peter Lougheed and Pedro Aspe, who are quite proud of how discrete these meetings are. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day attended the 2006 summit in Banff and to date refuses to disclose the contents of his speech. According to a CanWest article from March 23, 2007: "A 'media management plan' for the event in Banff last fall imposed a gag order on all participants, except the head of the Calgary-based media consulting firm, Corpen Group, John Larsen. Participants were directed 'to avoid direct media engagement where feasible,' say the notes... But Mr. Larsen said 'the conference wasn't secret. ... It was private, and that's an entirely different thing from being secret.'" The Oxford Canadian Dictionary defines "private" as: "kept or removed from public knowledge or observation; not open to the public." It defines "secret" as: "kept or meant to be kept private, unknown, or hidden from others." Can you tell the difference? I can't. The implications for policy making are chilling. "The Co-Chairs do not intend to make public pronouncements advocating specific policy approaches on the NAF's behalf," says the forum's website. "Rather the outputs of the NAF will be ideas and approaches that are individually pursued by participants at their own initiative and in their own name." That means high-level civil servants, military officials and elected representatives hang out, come to friendly agreements on certain common North American objectives, then go home and try their darndest to implement the necessary policy adjustments, "at their own initiative," without linking them back to the Forum where they originated. Is there room for democracy in that kind of arrangement? This year, the North American Forum discussed: - Strategic dimensions of the North American security and prosperity partnership (with Homeland Security and Canada Border Services Agency participation) Guest panellists included some familiar faces: - David O’Reilly, CEO, Chevron Corporation
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